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14 - Willing and Doing - The Spiritual Life - Andrew Murray · Philosophy and Faith

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Speaker 1: Willing and doing the words of my text this evening
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Speaker 1: you find in Romans and Philippians. Romans the seventh chapter,
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Speaker 1: the second half of the eighteenth verse, for to will
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Speaker 1: is present with me, But how to perform that which
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Speaker 1: is good I know not? And then Philippians the second
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Speaker 1: chapter and the twelfth verse, the second half and the
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Speaker 1: thirteenth work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
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Speaker 1: For it is God which worketh in you, both to
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Speaker 1: will and to do of His good pleasure. You see
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Speaker 1: how these two texts appear to contradict one another. The
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Speaker 1: first text gives us the experience of a man who says,
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Speaker 1: to will is present with me. My will is right.
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Speaker 1: I am willing to do God's will. I am willing
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Speaker 1: to do what is good. But he says, I have
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Speaker 1: not the power how to perform. I find not. It
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Speaker 1: is a man with whom there is a great gulf
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Speaker 1: between willing and doing, just the state of a great
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Speaker 1: many Christians. They will what is good, and somehow they
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Speaker 1: have not the strength to perform. They cannot understand it themselves,
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Speaker 1: and others cannot understand it. And yet it is exactly
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Speaker 1: as you have it here. To will is present with me.
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Speaker 1: But how to perform I find not. In the second text,
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Speaker 1: you have the very opposite. There, Paul says, work out
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Speaker 1: your own salvation with fear and trembling, For it is
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Speaker 1: God which worketh in you both to will and to
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Speaker 1: do according to His good pleasure. Here is a man
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Speaker 1: in whom Paul says that God does both the things,
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Speaker 1: not only the willing, but the doing also. Now, in
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Speaker 1: these two texts we have just the exact description of
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Speaker 1: the two stages of the Christian life that I have
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Speaker 1: been speaking about so repeatedly. You know, when we began
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Speaker 1: last Tuesday to speak at the carnal and spiritual, I
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Speaker 1: pointed out that there are two styles of Christian living.
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Speaker 1: The one is that of the carnal Christian who tries
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Speaker 1: to be good but can't succeed. He always fails. Temper
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Speaker 1: and strife and sin gets the better of him. The
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Speaker 1: other is the spiritual Christian who gets the victory. Just so,
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Speaker 1: here there are people who are always complaining, Oh, I
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Speaker 1: do desire to please God. It is my will and
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Speaker 1: purpose to do his will, but I can't do it.
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Speaker 1: They have not the strength. But there are other Christians
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Speaker 1: to whom pulls words to the Philippians come as a reality.
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Speaker 1: God works not only to will, but he also works
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Speaker 1: to do in them. Let us try to find out
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Speaker 1: what the difference is between these two states, what the
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Speaker 1: reason is that so many continue in the former state,
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Speaker 1: and what the way is to get out of it
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Speaker 1: into the second. Friends, don't you see clearly how much
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Speaker 1: better the second life is than the first. A man
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Speaker 1: always willing but not succeeding in doing, or a man
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Speaker 1: both willing and doing. Which is best? Every heart can
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Speaker 1: give the answer. Let every heart pray God reveal to
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Speaker 1: me how I can get into this blessed life willing
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Speaker 1: and doing both. Now, in speaking about this first stage,
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Speaker 1: I just want to remind you of the place that
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Speaker 1: the teaching in chapter seven has in the Epistle to
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Speaker 1: the Romans. This morning we had the sixth chapter, and
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Speaker 1: we saw that Paul says there to every believer, you
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Speaker 1: are dead in Christ. You are alive in Christ. You
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Speaker 1: must believe it and reckon upon it, and then come
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Speaker 1: and present yourself to God. But that is only the
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Speaker 1: beginning of the work of sanctification. He goes on in
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Speaker 1: the end of the chapter to tell them, now begin
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Speaker 1: at once and work there live for righteousness as servants
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Speaker 1: of righteousness, obeying God in everything. In the seventh chapter
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Speaker 1: he tells them there is something more. After a man
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Speaker 1: begins to try and obey God and live as God's
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Speaker 1: servant in the performance of righteousness, he comes to an
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Speaker 1: unexpected experience. He finds that he fails, and so Paul,
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Speaker 1: in the beginning of the seventh chapter says to him,
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Speaker 1: I have to tell you of something more and something better.
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Speaker 1: You are not only dead to sin. Everybody can understand
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Speaker 1: that that ought to be, but you are actually dead
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Speaker 1: to the law. The Christian answers, the law is good
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Speaker 1: and holy. How can I be dead to the law.
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Speaker 1: Paul tells him the law is indeed good and spiritual,
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Speaker 1: but the law is unfitted for your state because you
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Speaker 1: are sinful by nature, and you cannot keep the law,
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Speaker 1: and so the law just kills you. Your mistake in
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Speaker 1: the Christian life after your conversion is this, you try
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Speaker 1: to keep the law and you always fail. The law
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Speaker 1: was given by God at Sinai to stir men up
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Speaker 1: to their highest activity and urge them to do their
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Speaker 1: very best, that they might learn that they must fail,
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Speaker 1: and that they were utterly impotent. That was the work
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Speaker 1: of the law to convince men of their sinfulness. The believer,
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Speaker 1: when he thinks I am a regenerate man, I must
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Speaker 1: try and keep the law, always fails because the law
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Speaker 1: always calls you to self effort. It stirs up self,
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Speaker 1: and when self does its best, it can do nothing.
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Speaker 1: And so Paul here in the seventh chapter, tells us
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Speaker 1: you are not only dead to sin, as I told
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Speaker 1: you in the sixth chapter, but you are actually dead
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Speaker 1: to the law. He then goes on to teach us
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Speaker 1: more about this. I want you, as you study the
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Speaker 1: epistle carefully to note the teaching of the second half
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Speaker 1: of the seventh chapter. In the first division of the
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Speaker 1: epistle that I spoke of this morning, chapters one, verse
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Speaker 1: eighteen to five verse eleven, Paul had spoken about sins,
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Speaker 1: sins in the plural sinful acts as transgressions, and justification
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Speaker 1: had to do with them. But from the fifth chapter
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Speaker 1: and the twelfth verse he does not talk any more
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Speaker 1: about sins in the plural, but all about sin s
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Speaker 1: I n why in the first half of the epistle,
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Speaker 1: when he was talking about justification there he had to
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Speaker 1: speak about sinful deeds. But here in the second half,
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Speaker 1: he is about to speak of the power of sin
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Speaker 1: that works in us, and how that power is to
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Speaker 1: be conquered. That is the reason why in the second
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Speaker 1: half of the seventh chapter we enter on a new
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Speaker 1: discussion of the subject of sin. The epistle would have
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Speaker 1: been terribly discouraging if we had not had this seventh chapter.
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Speaker 1: Some people are troubled about it, but I thank God
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Speaker 1: exceedingly for it. What would it have helped me if
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Speaker 1: Paul had in the first chapter told me all about sin,
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Speaker 1: the sins of the heathen and the sins of the Jews,
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Speaker 1: and pardon and justification in the blood of Christ dying
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Speaker 1: for our sins, but had not told me about the
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Speaker 1: power of sin in my own life. What would it
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Speaker 1: have helped me? If Paul had only told me about
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Speaker 1: the sins of the unconverted man. As a believer, I
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Speaker 1: want to know about the sin of the converted man,
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Speaker 1: sin in the regenerate man. And therefore the second half
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Speaker 1: of Romans seven is indispensable to a right knowledge of
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Speaker 1: the will of God. It teaches us the precious lesson
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Speaker 1: of our impotence as the way to full deliverance. I
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Speaker 1: spoke in one of the addresses about their being needed
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Speaker 1: two convictions of sin. A conviction of sin for the
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Speaker 1: unconverted man to bring him to report pentence and faith,
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Speaker 1: and for the believer, a conviction of sin and sinfulness
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Speaker 1: to prepare him for full salvation. That is the Apostles
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Speaker 1: teaching here in the second half of the seventh chapter.
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Speaker 1: Dear friends, if you read it carefully, you will see
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Speaker 1: that Paul is speaking there about the Christian who is
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Speaker 1: a regenerate man who delights in the law of God,
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Speaker 1: longs to do what is right and good, and yet
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Speaker 1: is not able. And why not? The answer is simply
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Speaker 1: because he has not yielded to the Holy Spirit to
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Speaker 1: work all in him. Notice in chapter seven, from the
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Speaker 1: seventh verse, the name of Christ is not once mentioned,
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Speaker 1: except down at the very verse before the last I
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Speaker 1: thank God through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Notice the Holy
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Speaker 1: Spirit is not mentioned. Notice the man is speaking always
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Speaker 1: about the law. The word law occurs from twenty to
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Speaker 1: thirty times. The man is always speaking about I and me.
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Speaker 1: It is a regenerate man doing his very best to
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Speaker 1: keep the law of God, but he fails utterly. That
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Speaker 1: is just the life of the multitude of believers. They
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Speaker 1: are sometimes doing their very best, trying hard, praying and
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Speaker 1: crying to God, Lord, help me, but it does not help.
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Speaker 1: What a change comes. In the eighth chapter, Paul begins
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Speaker 1: in the second verse, the law, the dominion of the
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Speaker 1: Spirit of the Life in Christ, has set me free
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Speaker 1: from the dominion of sin and death. That is it.
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Speaker 1: A new power comes in the power of the Holy Ghost,
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Speaker 1: to enable a man not only to will, but to
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Speaker 1: do the will of God. That is the transition from
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Speaker 1: the first state to the second state. The second state
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Speaker 1: you find described in Philippian's second chapter, verses twelve and thirty.
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Speaker 1: Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for
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Speaker 1: it is God which worketh in you both to will
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Speaker 1: and to do. I remember being very much struck by
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Speaker 1: hearing a young missionary at the Cape, when he was
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Speaker 1: preparing to leave the congregation from which we were sending
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Speaker 1: him out, tell of something that had comforted him much.
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Speaker 1: I think it was in the life of David Brainerd.
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Speaker 1: He had read that when he had resolved to go
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Speaker 1: to the mission field, someone said, well, you are very
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Speaker 1: willing to go, aren't you. Yes, But how do you
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Speaker 1: know that you will succeed? How do you know that
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Speaker 1: you will be able to hold out and that you
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Speaker 1: won't turn back? And his answer was this, Well, the
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Speaker 1: God who has given the will will give the power
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Speaker 1: to perform it. He works to will and to do.
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Speaker 1: That is all we need to have in the Christian life.
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Speaker 1: That is what I want to speak about to night,
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Speaker 1: that the same God who has given the power to
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Speaker 1: will will also give the power to do, so that
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Speaker 1: a Christian need not always live complaining I will, I will,
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Speaker 1: but how to perform I do not find. God will
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Speaker 1: bring a man to the place where, by the living
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Speaker 1: power of the Holy Ghost, he can do God's will
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Speaker 1: and obey God's command. And that is the life we want.
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Speaker 1: In Roman seven we have, as we said, the language
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Speaker 1: of the renewed will. Some people think that it refers
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Speaker 1: to the unregenerate will. I cannot think that the language
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Speaker 1: is far too strong in the first place. Why should
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Speaker 1: he introduce the condition of the unregenerate man between the
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Speaker 1: sixth and eighth chapters, where he is entirely dealing with sanctification.
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Speaker 1: It would be out of place. He is talking about sanctification,
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Speaker 1: and why should he put in this passage about the
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Speaker 1: unregenerate man. I cannot think it, but it is in
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Speaker 1: its right place. If he comes to tell me what
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Speaker 1: is of far more interst to me than the state
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Speaker 1: of the unconverted man. If he comes to tell me
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Speaker 1: how things are in the heart of the converted man,
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Speaker 1: this is exactly what I need to know. Therefore, I
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Speaker 1: take my text to will is present with me, but
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Speaker 1: to perform I find not as the language of the
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Speaker 1: regenerate man. And I want to give you some simple
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Speaker 1: lessons which I think these words teach us. And the
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Speaker 1: first lesson is the renewed will teaches me the power
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Speaker 1: of regeneration. That God changes the heart and the will,
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Speaker 1: and the life and the desire of a man. He
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Speaker 1: turns right from them. And the man who has loved sin,
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Speaker 1: who has not loved God's will and God's law, a
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Speaker 1: man who has loved himself and his own will and
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Speaker 1: done it, that man is changed entirely, and he begins
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Speaker 1: to delight in the will of God. I am going
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Speaker 1: to speak to you about the impotence and insufficiency of
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Speaker 1: that renewed will to night. But before I do that,
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Speaker 1: I want to make ify that renewed will as the
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Speaker 1: gift of the everlasting God, and I want to say
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Speaker 1: to you, Thank God, if you can honestly say, Lord,
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Speaker 1: with my whole heart, I have purposed and sworn to
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Speaker 1: do that will. Never mind if you fail, never mind
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Speaker 1: if you haven't got the strength to do it yet.
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Speaker 1: But hold on and say to God, Lord, I delight
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Speaker 1: in Thy will. I delight to do it, and I
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Speaker 1: want to do it. The renewed will teaches me the
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Speaker 1: power of regeneration. You find men trying to change their
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Speaker 1: own hearts, to change their own wills, to change their inclinations,
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Speaker 1: but they have found that they could not change it,
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Speaker 1: but God changes it. I have read the story of
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Speaker 1: a Christian woman losing her temper week after week and
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Speaker 1: going to her bedroom and praying and crying to God
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Speaker 1: for deliverance, and telling how she did it for years,
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Speaker 1: and no deliverance came. The will was right. It has
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Speaker 1: been so with many that was evident that God's work
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Speaker 1: was in them, that they did not sit down with
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Speaker 1: the thought, well, never mind, there is no great harm,
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Speaker 1: But they never get rest in it. Their will was
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Speaker 1: set upon doing the will of God, though they utterly
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Speaker 1: failed in performing it. And therefore I say to you,
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Speaker 1: my fellow Christians, though you have not attained yet to
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Speaker 1: the doing of God's will, Begin and hold fast that,
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Speaker 1: and say I will what God wills. Say that in affliction,
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Speaker 1: say even though your heart trembles and you cannot submit,
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Speaker 1: though you cannot bring your heart to do what you want,
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Speaker 1: and to be perfectly submissive, Say Lord, I will what
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Speaker 1: thou willest. I give up my will, and I choose
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Speaker 1: Thy will. Though my heart refuses to rest or with
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Speaker 1: regard to any sin that is troubling you and conquering you.
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Speaker 1: Say it to God, Lord, I will to do what
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Speaker 1: thou hast commanded. This is my first lesson. The renewed
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Speaker 1: will in my text teaches me the power of regeneration,
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Speaker 1: but it teaches me, in the second place, the impotence
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Speaker 1: and powerlessness of the regenerate man. Regeneration gives a man
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Speaker 1: a new will, but the regenerate man, after he has
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Speaker 1: got the new will, is an impotent thing. And the
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Speaker 1: great mischief in our churches and among our Christians is
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Speaker 1: that they don't know that. People think, well, I am regenerate,
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Speaker 1: and I have the grace of God in me, and
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Speaker 1: I have got somewhat of God's spirit in me, and
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Speaker 1: I ought to be able to do God's will. And
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Speaker 1: they try and do their very best, and they fail.
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Speaker 1: But here comes now the important lesson about the second
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Speaker 1: blessing and the higher life, or the spiritual life, or
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Speaker 1: whatever name you call it by. That God comes and
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Speaker 1: tells the regenerate man, my son, I have given you
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Speaker 1: a new will. But that new will alone cannot help you.
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Speaker 1: Many a man thinks, if I were only fixed and
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Speaker 1: firm in my will, I would be able to obey God.
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Speaker 1: He groans and cries to God about it. He delights
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Speaker 1: in the law of God, and yet he cannot do
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Speaker 1: what he wants to do. Does that not teach me
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Speaker 1: clearly that a regenerate man is an impotent man? Do
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Speaker 1: I not see it every day of my life? And
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Speaker 1: are there not a hundred witnesses in this building to
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Speaker 1: night who can say it is so? There are some
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Speaker 1: things that a man can't do, there are some things
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Speaker 1: that he can't forsake. And when you come to the
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Speaker 1: daily temptations of the inner life, the regenerate man is
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Speaker 1: an impotent man. There are men who, for thirty or
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Speaker 1: forty years have fought against their temper and never conquered it.
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Speaker 1: And they have admitted it with grief. There are men
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Speaker 1: who have fought for thirty or forty years against self
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Speaker 1: will and unlovingness, and they never conquered it. Why because
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Speaker 1: the regenerate man is an impotent man as long as
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Speaker 1: he tries, in virtue of his regeneration to serve God.
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Speaker 1: Then comes my third thought that the regenerate man, if
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Speaker 1: he is actually to do God's will, needs a new blessing,
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Speaker 1: needs a new blessing. Yes, that is the great truth
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Speaker 1: which the eighth chapter of Romans teaches us. Paul in
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Speaker 1: the seventh chapter is silent about the spirit, not a
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Speaker 1: word about it, all about the law and the regenerate
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Speaker 1: man who is under the law, still trying to obey
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Speaker 1: the law. But then he comes in the eighth chapter
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Speaker 1: and says, now the law, the power of the spirit
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Speaker 1: of life in Christ, had set me free from the law,
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Speaker 1: which took me captive and which prevented my doing what
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Speaker 1: I really willed to do. He says, the Spirit of
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Speaker 1: Christ does set be free. In chapter seven, I have
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Speaker 1: a man who is a captive in chapter eight, a
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Speaker 1: man who has been set at liberty by God's Spirit.
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Speaker 1: He goes on to tell me that the spirit of
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Speaker 1: Christ enables me to walk after the Spirit. By the Spirit,
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Speaker 1: I can mortify the deeds of the body, so that
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Speaker 1: I do not do any longer what I do not
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Speaker 1: want to. Oh, the blessedness of knowing there is a
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Speaker 1: second step. That second step need not be long after conversion.
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Speaker 1: It sometimes comes with conversion when the Holy Spirit comes
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Speaker 1: very mightily down upon a man, and he at once
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Speaker 1: begins to will and to do. But in the Church,
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Speaker 1: as it is now, in most cases, it does not
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Speaker 1: come at once. And therefore we must preach to you,
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Speaker 1: beloved brethren, that there is a different stage from that
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Speaker 1: on which most of us live. And what is that stage.
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Speaker 1: That stage is when the Holy Spirit comes and fills
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Speaker 1: the heart, and a man believes, not only does God
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Speaker 1: work in me to will, but God will work in
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Speaker 1: me to do. Oh, the difference between the willing and doing.
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Speaker 1: Take a child. You give a child a sum in arithmetic,
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Speaker 1: a little boy of ten, and he is so willing,
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Speaker 1: and he does work so hard, and he does his
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Speaker 1: very best. The will is not wanting, but he can't
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Speaker 1: do it. Ah, that is just the will of most Christians.
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Speaker 1: You have not the power, you cannot do it. We
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Speaker 1: learn here from Paul in chapter seven, that the man
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Speaker 1: of whom he speaks hasn't it. But I can say
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Speaker 1: something else, Oh, my brother, the Holy Spirit is the
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Speaker 1: mighty power of God for doing. And if you will
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Speaker 1: come and begin to say, my whole life must be
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Speaker 1: entirely given up to the Spirit of God. And I
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Speaker 1: must allow the Spirit of God to take the place
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Speaker 1: that I, with my own strength, have been trying to take.
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Speaker 1: My The whole life must be one of waiting upon
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Speaker 1: the Spirit of God and rejoicing in him. Then God
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Speaker 1: will give not only to will, but to do also.
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Speaker 1: Glory to God's name. Let us depend upon it and
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Speaker 1: believe it and rejoice in it. It is God which
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Speaker 1: worketh in you, both to will and to do. You
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Speaker 1: ask me, perhaps, why has God arranged it so that
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Speaker 1: there are to be two separate stages, the willing and
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Speaker 1: the doing. Wouldn't it have been better and more blest
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Speaker 1: if God, when he gave the will, had given me
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Speaker 1: the do at the same time. Why did not God
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Speaker 1: give it to that man in Romance seven. There is
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Speaker 1: a divine reason for it, and that reason is this,
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Speaker 1: When an unconverted man comes to Christ and God asks
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Speaker 1: that man will you live to do my will. The
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Speaker 1: unconverted man cannot answer the question because he does not
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Speaker 1: understand what God's will is. He is blind. He thinks
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Speaker 1: he knows what God's will is, but he cannot, in
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Speaker 1: his unconverted state, know what the depth and purity of
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Speaker 1: God's will is and how the will of God reaches
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Speaker 1: to the inmost being. A man at conversion cannot yet
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Speaker 1: give a fully intelligent answer to the question. He does
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Speaker 1: not know what it means when he says, Lord, I
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Speaker 1: will do all thou sayest Israel at Mount SINAI said
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Speaker 1: all that the Lord hath spoken, we will do. But
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Speaker 1: they did not know what they were saying. Just so,
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Speaker 1: when an unconverted man comes to conversion, he does not
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Speaker 1: know what the will of God is. But after he
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Speaker 1: is converted, then God gives him time a year or
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Speaker 1: two years or three years, and as a regenerate man,
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Speaker 1: he begins earnestly to try and do God's will. As
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Speaker 1: a rule. He fails utterly. Then God comes and deals
21:56
Speaker 1: with him a second time and says, my child, I
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Speaker 1: gave you a new will to love my will, and
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Speaker 1: you thought you were able to do it. I want
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Speaker 1: to cure you now entirely of self and self confidence.
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Speaker 1: I have allowed you to try your best, and you
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Speaker 1: have seen how you have utterly failed in the doing
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Speaker 1: of my will. Come now a second time, and let
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Speaker 1: me give you a new blessing. And if he asks, Father,
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Speaker 1: what is this blessing? Hast thou not given me the
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Speaker 1: Holy Spirit? God answers, Yes, thou art a temple of
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Speaker 1: the Spirit, and the Spirit is in THEE. But thou
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Speaker 1: hast never understood what it is to have thy whole
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Speaker 1: being entirely filled with the Spirit. Thou hast never understood
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Speaker 1: what it is all the day and every day to
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Speaker 1: be entirely dependent upon the Holy Spirit. Thou hast never
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Speaker 1: understood how fully and entirely I want THEE in everything
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Speaker 1: to glorify me. Come, my child, and I will have
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Speaker 1: a second transaction with THEE. And if thou wilt come
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Speaker 1: and transact with me as thou didst a conversion, and
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Speaker 1: with a new meaning and a new depth, and with
23:08
Speaker 1: new intensity of purpose, will yield thyself to me. Come
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Speaker 1: and say, my God, I have begun to see what
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Speaker 1: is wrong and how I have failed. I now want
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Speaker 1: to come and give up everything to THEE. I want
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Speaker 1: to give up self to thee. I want to give
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Speaker 1: up self confidence and self effort. Then God will give answer,
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Speaker 1: my child. If thou art willing to go down into
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Speaker 1: the death of Jesus to come to the end of self,
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Speaker 1: I will give the Holy Spirit fully in thee. Jesus
23:41
Speaker 1: had to pass through the two stages. He was born
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Speaker 1: the first time in Bethlehem, but he had to die.
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Speaker 1: He had to give up the life of Bethlehem, and
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Speaker 1: he was born a second time out of the grave.
23:54
Speaker 1: He is called the first born from the dead. He
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Speaker 1: was born from the grave into a new life, a
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Speaker 1: life of victory. His first life was a life without sin,
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Speaker 1: but a life of weakness and very little power as
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Speaker 1: compared with his life on the throne. And just so
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Speaker 1: in your life there can be these two stages. The
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Speaker 1: first stage created in you a willing heart, brought you
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Speaker 1: into the position of a child wishing to do God's will.
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Speaker 1: My child may wish to do my will, but he
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Speaker 1: is unable to do it. He must grow up into
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Speaker 1: a strong man. At twenty one he comes of age,
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Speaker 1: and then he can do it. God does not require
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Speaker 1: twenty one years to do his will, and he sometimes
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Speaker 1: gives it to his child at conversion. But when the
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Speaker 1: church is in such a feeble state as it is now,
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Speaker 1: you find men living as Christians forty or fifty years
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Speaker 1: without it. I come to night to plead with you
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Speaker 1: and to say, God is willing my brother to lift
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Speaker 1: you out of the lower to the higher stage, where
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Speaker 1: you can will and do both. Don't you understand it
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Speaker 1: as an absolute necessity. God must trade us gradually, and
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Speaker 1: God wants us to come to a right sense of
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Speaker 1: us sinfulness and to a right sense of our utter helplessness.
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Speaker 1: When He has so prepared us, he will make true
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Speaker 1: full Christians of us, with the Holy Spirit dwelling and
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Speaker 1: ruling in us. This brings me now to my fourth thought,
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Speaker 1: and that is the question wherein consists the secrets of
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Speaker 1: entering into this second blessing. My answer is simply entire
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Speaker 1: dependence upon God. Let us now look at the text
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Speaker 1: in Philippians. Work out your own salvation, for it is
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Speaker 1: God which worketh in you to will and to do. Now,
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Speaker 1: just listen a moment. Which of these things must come first?
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Speaker 1: Work out your own salvation? For it is God that
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Speaker 1: worketh in you. Which of the two you must come first?
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Speaker 1: Of course, God works in you, work you because God
26:06
Speaker 1: is working. Work You stands grammatically before God works, but
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Speaker 1: really and spiritually it comes after. Paul says, God works.
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Speaker 1: Now you work, and O, friends, what is the great
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Speaker 1: reason that you try to work and you cannot? That
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Speaker 1: you will and cannot perform because you do not believe
26:27
Speaker 1: in the working of God. You try in your own
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Speaker 1: strength to work. You take one half of the text,
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Speaker 1: work out your own salvation, and you try hard, but
26:37
Speaker 1: you fail. Why because you do not take the first
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Speaker 1: half the foundation work you because God is working in you,
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Speaker 1: both to will and to do. What God wants is
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Speaker 1: to bring us there where we let him work. That
26:53
Speaker 1: is what we had yesterday about Christ bringing us to God.
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Speaker 1: That is what we had this morning about our when
27:00
Speaker 1: we are alive from the dead at once, coming and
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Speaker 1: presenting ourselves unto God. Don't you begin to see that
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Speaker 1: God must take a much larger and higher place in
27:10
Speaker 1: our life. If I want not only to will, but
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Speaker 1: also to do, then the Holy Spirit must teach me
27:17
Speaker 1: to come and wait upon God with a dependence and
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Speaker 1: with a helplessness, and with a patience that I never
27:24
Speaker 1: exercised before. I must understand that every day of my life.
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Speaker 1: God must, directly from Heaven, by the operation of His
27:33
Speaker 1: Holy Spirit himself, do the working in me. Do you
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Speaker 1: see that work, for God worketh in you to will
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Speaker 1: and to do Ah. It is no wonder that we
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Speaker 1: will so much and do so little in the spiritual life,
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Speaker 1: and that our life is so full of failure. God
27:52
Speaker 1: has not the place that God must have. It is
27:55
Speaker 1: not wrong that the whole heart of the sinner is
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Speaker 1: occupied with Christ for crime once to get hold of
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Speaker 1: him and to win his love, and to take him
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Speaker 1: to himself. But when once I am converted and in
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Speaker 1: the hands of Christ, Christ wants to bring me on
28:10
Speaker 1: a step and to bring me to God, that I
28:12
Speaker 1: may receive from God everything, just as Christ did himself.
28:17
Speaker 1: Christ's whole life. We saw that yesterday morning was dependence, dependence,
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Speaker 1: dependence upon God and nothing else. Every morning and every
28:28
Speaker 1: night from Bethlehem to Calvary, dependence upon God. And if
28:33
Speaker 1: Christ is living in me, and if my life is
28:36
Speaker 1: to be the life of Christ, and if my life
28:39
Speaker 1: is to be a life of power and of fruit
28:41
Speaker 1: and of work, I must let God work both to
28:44
Speaker 1: will and to do of his good pleasure. Dear Christian friends,
28:49
Speaker 1: I ask myself sometimes, is not the reason of all
28:53
Speaker 1: the weakness in the Church of Christ, just this people
28:56
Speaker 1: do not know their God. In the Prophet Daniel we
29:00
Speaker 1: read that the people who know their God shall be
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Speaker 1: strong and do exploits. You must know your God. Your
29:08
Speaker 1: God is the great power in the universe that works everything.
29:12
Speaker 1: He keeps the sun shining, He keeps every little grass green.
29:17
Speaker 1: It is God that clothes the lilies with their beauty.
29:20
Speaker 1: How does he do it? Not from without, not from above,
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Speaker 1: away at a distance, but He gives his life into
29:27
Speaker 1: the beautiful lily as it grows. God is everywhere present
29:32
Speaker 1: in nature, and God wants to be much more distinctly
29:35
Speaker 1: and really practically present in the heart of the believer.
29:40
Speaker 1: But we do not know it, and we do not
29:42
Speaker 1: think about it. Why it is because we do not
29:46
Speaker 1: listen to His word. God worketh in you, and we
29:49
Speaker 1: do not let His spirit teach us what God would
29:52
Speaker 1: do for us. Therefore the question comes to us with
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Speaker 1: unutterable solemnity. Does not the renewed will call call all
30:01
Speaker 1: of us to a life of more dependence on God.
30:05
Speaker 1: Dear friends, if we will consent to live a life
30:08
Speaker 1: of nothingness waiting upon the living God. He will work
30:12
Speaker 1: both to will and to do according to his good pleasure.
30:17
Speaker 1: And now my last thought, how to enter into this blessing?
30:22
Speaker 1: My first thought was the renewed will proves the power
30:25
Speaker 1: of regeneration. It proves the impotence of the regenerate man,
30:29
Speaker 1: and it proves the need of something new, a second blessing.
30:33
Speaker 1: And now the last thought, how are we to enter
30:36
Speaker 1: upon the blessing? Is there for us a prospect of
30:40
Speaker 1: real obedience? The man in Roman seven had no real obedience.
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Speaker 1: His heart was right, he was honest, but he failed.
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Speaker 1: It was just the condition of the disciples before Pentecost.
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Speaker 1: You know, their hearts were right. Peter's heart was right
30:56
Speaker 1: when he said, Lord, I will go to prison and
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Speaker 1: to death thee he loved Jesus. He was honest, and
31:03
Speaker 1: that is why Christ did not reject him. He was honest,
31:07
Speaker 1: but impotent, full of self confidence, and he deceived himself.
31:12
Speaker 1: There was the will, but he could not perform. Look
31:16
Speaker 1: at gathsemone. Christ said of his disciples when he found
31:19
Speaker 1: them sleeping. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.
31:25
Speaker 1: A word of the deepest spiritual significance. My beloved disciples
31:30
Speaker 1: there is in you a spirit that is willing. You
31:33
Speaker 1: love me and want to watch with me, But the
31:35
Speaker 1: flesh is too strong and you can't do it. The
31:39
Speaker 1: power of the spirit has not yet conquered the power
31:42
Speaker 1: of the flesh. But when the Holy Ghost came at Pentecost,
31:46
Speaker 1: the power of the spirit conquered the flesh, and they
31:49
Speaker 1: were able to do anything, even though they had to
31:52
Speaker 1: suffer for Jesus. Dear friends, how can we enter into
31:57
Speaker 1: this blessing? There is one step. One thing is needful,
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Speaker 1: and what is that? Giving up our life to God?
32:06
Speaker 1: Can we do it? To night? Yes we can, if
32:09
Speaker 1: the heart is prepared. Just think now for a moment
32:13
Speaker 1: back and ask yourself. Has the picture of Roman seven
32:17
Speaker 1: been your photograph? Have you not had to say that
32:20
Speaker 1: is exactly my condition? Give answer when the man cries
32:25
Speaker 1: here to will is present with me? But how to perform?
32:29
Speaker 1: I know not? Has not that been true of your life?
32:32
Speaker 1: Very largely? Come say so if it is before God,
32:37
Speaker 1: and say alas alas too much, that has been my life.
32:43
Speaker 1: Well do you want to remain in that condition? Or
32:46
Speaker 1: would you love to come to a life in which
32:48
Speaker 1: God will work in you both to will and to
32:50
Speaker 1: do so that when God makes you will anything that
32:54
Speaker 1: is good, you may be certain that God will help
32:56
Speaker 1: you carry it out. God will work to do in
33:00
Speaker 1: you all things good. Do you long for that? Would
33:05
Speaker 1: you not long, beloved Christians, to do the blessed will
33:08
Speaker 1: of God? Blest are they that hear the word of
33:11
Speaker 1: God and do it? Oh, the blessedness of knowing that
33:15
Speaker 1: I do the will of God? Do you not long
33:19
Speaker 1: for that blessed life? Well, now you have heard about
33:23
Speaker 1: the impotence of the regenerate man. Don't try any longer
33:27
Speaker 1: to flog and spur and urge yourself with the thought.
33:30
Speaker 1: You must try more, You must do better, You must
33:32
Speaker 1: pray more. It will not help you in this matter.
33:36
Speaker 1: You must come to despair of your present condition. Here
33:40
Speaker 1: am I a child of God, knowing and loving God's will,
33:44
Speaker 1: wanting to do it, longing to do it, and yet
33:47
Speaker 1: failing is there no help for me? Thank God? There
33:52
Speaker 1: is help, and here is the help. Philippians, Chapter two,
33:56
Speaker 1: verse thirteen. It is God which worketh in you both
34:00
Speaker 1: to will and to do. Work out your own salvation
34:04
Speaker 1: with fear and trembling, For God will work in you.
34:08
Speaker 1: And isn't that the one step. I am to night
34:10
Speaker 1: to take out of the life of failure and the
34:13
Speaker 1: life of wrong doing, and the life of Romans seven.
34:17
Speaker 1: So that I cry, O, wretched man, that I am
34:20
Speaker 1: who shall deliver, And that I cry, I thank God
34:24
Speaker 1: through Jesus Christ, there is deliverance. Is that not the step?
34:29
Speaker 1: And then as I say, I thank God, that I
34:32
Speaker 1: come and present myself to God again, as we had
34:35
Speaker 1: it this morning, as alive from the dead. And I say,
34:39
Speaker 1: Lord God, now I begin to understand it, as alive
34:43
Speaker 1: from the dead. I must present myself to THEE every
34:46
Speaker 1: day and every hour. For the power must come from
34:49
Speaker 1: THEE alone. When Thou hadst placed the will in me
34:53
Speaker 1: and the delight and the law of my God, I
34:55
Speaker 1: thought that that was all, and that now I must
34:58
Speaker 1: try and carry it out. How I have failed. Now
35:02
Speaker 1: I come and present myself unto God, unto God himself.
35:07
Speaker 1: We heard this morning, Why we heard this morning, How
35:11
Speaker 1: in thanksgiving, in entire surrender to be entirely his. But
35:15
Speaker 1: above all, in holy expectancy, we are to say to God,
35:20
Speaker 1: this life was begun by THEE and must be continued
35:23
Speaker 1: by THEE. Every minute. A tree can only live on
35:27
Speaker 1: the root from which it springs. If an oak springs
35:30
Speaker 1: to day from an acorn, the oak can stand a
35:33
Speaker 1: hundred years, but it must always stand in the root
35:36
Speaker 1: from which it springs up to day. And so if
35:40
Speaker 1: your new life has sprung up from God, it can
35:43
Speaker 1: only root in God every day. And unless there is
35:46
Speaker 1: contact with God every moment, and unless there is the
35:49
Speaker 1: filling from God every moment to work thee do in you,
35:54
Speaker 1: your life must be feeble. Oh come Christian and say,
35:59
Speaker 1: though God regenerated me and gave me a new heart
36:02
Speaker 1: and a new will, that is not enough. God must
36:06
Speaker 1: give me, and he will give me the power to
36:08
Speaker 1: carry out the new will. God will do it. Oh come,
36:13
Speaker 1: let us surrender ourselves to God this very night and
36:16
Speaker 1: enter into a covenant with him. Dear friends, let us come,
36:21
Speaker 1: Let us plead for pardon, Let us surrender ourselves and
36:24
Speaker 1: trust for mercy. I do not know if all are
36:28
Speaker 1: prepared for it. I do not know if the majority
36:31
Speaker 1: are prepared for it. But if there were only ten
36:33
Speaker 1: souls here to night who have begun to say, I
36:36
Speaker 1: see there is a second blessing. I see there is
36:39
Speaker 1: a life of liberty and victory. I see there is
36:42
Speaker 1: a life not only of willing, but of actual performance.
36:46
Speaker 1: I see there is a life of power, in which
36:49
Speaker 1: the Holy Ghost comes and enables a man to do
36:52
Speaker 1: God's will. I want that life. Let them say, Lord,
36:57
Speaker 1: accept of me, Lord fulfill in me thy word. I
37:02
Speaker 1: believe thou wilt henceforth work in me to will and
37:05
Speaker 1: to do amen.